1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-contained portable cabinet or mobile bar for use in bartending. The mobile bar is designed with an upper bar rail or customer counter which can be either displaced or completely removed from the base of the bar to allow the bar to pass through a standard size doorway.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, when there is a need to set up a bar at a remote location which is not equipped with a built-in bar cabinet, such as inside an individual's home or in an office location, the bartender normally must make do with what is available at the site or work behind some type of portable table, such as a portable folding table. In these make-shift types of arrangements, it is often difficult to organize all the necessary equipment into a functional arrangement and almost impossible to achieve an efficient and attractive arrangement.
An ideal arrangement would be to have a portable bar which would be narrow enough to be rolled on casters through a standard size doorway. One problem faced in creating such a portable bar arrangement is that the smallest commercially available refrigerator is too large to incorporate into a cabinet and still allow the cabinet to pass through a standard 29 inch doorway. The ideal arrangement would also have to provide adequate lower counter space or bartender counter space for storing liquor bottles and for mixing and serving drinks, adequate elevated customer counter space for allowing patrons to stand around the bar and place their drinks on the elevated customer counter surface, and provide efficient and attractive storage for either standard 15.5 gallon beer kegs, 7.75 gallon pony kegs or 5 gallon soda kegs, gas bottles, ice, and a refrigeration system for keeping the kegs of beer or soda pop chilled.
The present invention addresses this need by providing a portable bar which includes a built in refrigeration system and can be easily transported by one or two people into and out of buildings through standard size doorways. In addition, once the present invention is positioned in the desired location and prepared for use, it has plenty of counter space and provides attractive storage for all items and equipment needed to serve both cold beer on tap and mixed drinks. The present invention also incorporates a weighing system for measuring the weight of each keg while the kegs are in use as a means to indicate the number of servings of beer remaining in each keg. This allows the bartender to make arrangements to obtain a new full keg before the keg or kegs which are in service run dry. Also, the present invention operates on electricity supplied to it by an electrical extension cord and receives its water supply via a standard garden hose, thus allowing the invention to be used outdoors as well as inside a building. Finally, the present invention has a removable customer counter which can be replaced with a variety of other alternate counter configurations, such as counters for card tables, conference tables, etc.